My First Design Book - Purchased and Read

OK, the title may seem like I wrote a book, but actually I BOUGHT my first Design book and READ it too. You might be thinking WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL? But it is, for me, 2 BIG DEALS. First of all, I hardly buy books. I happened to buy few cookbooks, but not by famous authors. They are from clearance rack of Barnes and Nobles and 2nd hand book stores. I never really went to a book store or online looking to buy a book. But Young House Love is different.

I love their blog and following along their book progress. I have to be honest, I wasn't very impressed when I first saw the book cover, but I checked out some of the pages inside at Amazon and loved the ideas they put in and the way they were laid out. So I ordered it. Actually I added it to cart and waited, until I could find something else I need from Amazon to get free shipping on orders above $25. I found another book, cookbook to be specific, that's a different story on a different blog, and ordered it. Went on for a weekend trip to see a friend and they were home when I came back. So exited to see the book that it kind of felt weird to me that I am happy to see a book. I totally loved the book cover after physically seeing it and the hard cover makes it highend. Flipped through it and fell in LOVE with it. But I couldn't read it all that night. It went to my narrow-wobbly-IKEA bookshelf. All my books go there and never leave that shelf. Seriously. I haven't tried a single recipe out of the 20+ cookbooks and magazines I bought.

After a week, when the kid is in bed and hubby too as I completed my nightly chores, I felt like looking at the book's contents. No intension to read till the end, I started with page1. I'll be honest I didn't read everybit of it, like the intro and stuff. But the ideas were so brief, yet well described that I did not feel bored as I would reading any other book. So I completely read it. All 243 ideas. Till 1.50AM.

There, my 2 big deals. I went online looking for a book & bought it AND I read it all.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my first Design book, I mean, YOUNG HOUSE LOVE's design book that I bought.

Duct Tape for Diabetes

I was catching up on my blog reads and my heart melted when I read this story and one of the comments on it at A Thoughtful Place. I have family members with diabetes and I have had a classmate with juvenille diabetes when I was in Elementary school, but I never realised how hard it is to care for a child with diabetes. I wouldn't have understood it as much before I had my baby, but now when I come across children with health problems I thank god many times for giving us a healthy child. Many of us new moms think taking care of a newborn/toddler is so hard (all those nighttime feedings, sleep cycles, toddler tantrums etc. that we complain about), though it is fun, but don't realise how lucky we are to have a healthy child. I bow in honor to the parents that do so much to provide a normal life for their children with extra needs. I was speechless when I read that Jack's friends, who are about his age, wanted to help and started Duct Tape for Diabetes to help find a cure for juvenile diabetes. They are selling little things like flowers, bracelets and coasters made out of duct tape and 100% of all proceeds will be donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. All products are made by these kids. I don't know how many people read my blog, but if even one person reads this and makes a donation, its worthwhile. If kids can do so much for such good cause, we can atleast spend a little money to make a difference right? Love you Sam, Chase and Grant, God Bless You and your friend.

You can read the full story at A Thoughtful Place.

Polka Dot Baby Shower

We hosted a surprise baby shower for our friends from New York when they flew across county for our baby's 1st birthday. It was 5 months back. They had the baby who is now almost 3 months old. I know, I had been very lazy past few months. Lot of things going on, but back to business. This was the first party we hosted for someone else so I was very excited about the decorations. I love decorating for parties and I don't get those opportunities very often so I look forward to them. Challenge was, it was planned the very next day of the birthday party and they were staying in our house. Good and Bad for planning. Good because I could shop and arrange some of the things along with birthday related stuff and they won't notice (remember, it was a surprise party). Bad becasue there were still some things we needed to do that might be noticed as they were staying with us. I managed somehow, they had no clue about the shower. We were able to send them to meet other friends the morning of their party and informed all friends to come earlier than they did so we can shout SURPRISE!

Here are some pictures and the details of the arrangements. Big birthday party came in very handy as I was able to reuse a lot of stuff, including some food.

They were having a boy and they didn't say they have a prefered color for baby stuff, so we went with bright party colors. Mixed colors polka dots was kind of the theme. You can see it in Cake, napkins, Thank you gift bags (get a peek of them in Wine cabinet on the left), thank you cards, and printed game cards.

This beautiful yet simple cake was made by Frost My Cake bakery. They did an awesome job with our daughter's birthday cake too. 

I made this Diaper cake. Looks like a model of Leaning tower isn't it? It was a quick fix version, only took 15 minutes to do this. My first one, you can see here, took about 2-3 hours. I guess the more time spent, the better it looks. Yellow stand was a vase for $3 and a cake board wrapped in yellow wrapping paper. I made an extra batch of Brownie pops while making them for the birthday party and decorated them with orange sugar opposed to the lavender I used for birthday party. Mom to be was next to me but she did not have a clue.

We served Chocolate fondue, also an extra batch planned along birthday party, with some pound cake, marshmallows, macaroons and fruit. I bought this fondue pot long ago for $7.99 at TJ Maxx. Just enough size for a family or smaller get togethers. Homemade cookies with words related to baby, mom and dad. I baked the cookies before their visit, but I couldn't decorate them 4 days in advance, so I did the night before, after everyone slept. Now you understand the challenge!

Cupcakes, candy were from birthday party the day before.

I have setup a small game station where we had a card for everyone to sign, game cards for Baby Word Scramble, Price it Right etc., which I made and printed to match with the polka dot theme, pencils, 'Mom To Be' badge, 'How big is my Tummy' ribbon.

We played fun games and made Daddy change a diaper too. Here are some games played by the couple.

The couple were very happy and so were we that they came all the way here and gave us an opportunity to celebrate the baby shower. They had a beautiful baby boy this summer. We are looking forward to visiting him. I will post about the birthday party soon. Actually, I am waiting on the professional pictures hoping she might have captured all the detials better than us.

PS: I masked some names and faces in pictures to save privacy of the couple.

Picaboo Photobook Deal

I am sure most of you have made or at least heard of Photobooks. Its the modern take on traditional photo album. Almost every photo printing service offers these nowadays. Picaboo has a deal on these photo books on Living Social. 20-Page Classic Custom Hardcover Photo Book in Large ($10) or Extra-Large ($20) Check it out here!

It's the most wonderful time of the year....

It truly is. I love Christmas season. It's festive everywhere. Everybody looks happy. The lights, the songs, the gifts, the food, the stress, the time off from work I love it all. So I try to make my house look festive during this time. We bought a 6.5 feet tree for our 2nd Christmas after we married and slowly built up my stock of ornaments and outdoor lights year after year. It may not be enough for most of you who have grown up celebrating Christmas season this way, but from where I came, this is a big deal. I am so glad I can do this and thankful that my husband shares the same enthusiasm. I make sure to send pictures to my Grandma every year, she is the reason I know Christmas and appreciate it as much as I do today.
Here is our tree in the living room that I adore.

And some of my favorite ornaments...

The Nativity set and White Santa with presents....

Dining Table centerpiece....

Family room...

I added some pinks and purples in the family room for baby, like this vase filled with purple ornaments and a tutu skirt wrapped around, a vase near fireplace filled with pinkish easter basket fillers.

We had some extra lights from outside that I placed inside fireplace to make it look like fire. Except for the green wire coming out of the fireplace and the extension cord, I love how the lights look like fire.

We don't have tree topper yet. May be for next year.

There it is. Christmas decor at our house. Simple, but special for us, especially since it is our baby's First Christmas.

Here is the cutie, getting ready to decorate the tree.

I'm linking up at Kelly's Korner, Blue-Eyed Bride, Thrifty Decor Chick, A Thoughtful Place, The Nester & The Christmas Cheer Link Party

Baby Toys in Family room

They are everywhere. It seems like yesterday that we came home with a baby so tiny and delicate and here she is already 9 months old, with a room full of toys. It seems to be impossible to keep the house tidy. I know, many of you are thinking, wait till she can walk and talk. I don't even want to think about it now. For now, I want to deal with the baby clutter i.e., toys and books all over the floor in our family room. So I bought an Expedit 2X2 shelf from IKEA. I actually wanted to get a 2X4 for under the window in her nursery for a while, but she is not using her nursery much right now. She plays in the family room while we do our chores and 2X2 will fit in well in our family room. So I bought that thinking if I ever wanted similar storage in her nursery, I could buy another 2X2 and put both next to each other (thats why I bought a white one). Or I may sell this on craigslist (which I never have good luck with) and buy the bigger one, who knows. As I said, for now, I need to tackle the clutter in family room.

It was perfect. The 2 colorful bins I had bought at Target for her toys fit into the cubbies, it looks pretty and clean.

I placed a tall vase filled with purple ornaments on this shelf and a tutu skirt I bought for her (@babies r us for less than 10 bucks) around the vase. Part of my holiday decor. Al her soft toys and rocker fit in perfectly in the other 2 cubbies. Love how it looks, and how clean the room looks.

Family Room

I bought a new piece of furniture last weekend to tackle baby clutter in our family room. Before posting about it, I realized I never shared our family room pictures with you. So, here they are from back in September. It was much cleaner at that time, since the bean was less than 6 months old and wasn't so active.

Our open concept Kitchen and Family room. Sorry, no pictures of kitchen yet. I have to do some cleanup before I can show it to you.

Our beloved, kinda modern sectional. Me n Hubby are very particular about not to buy bulky furniture. By the way I painted that abstract art on the wall. I am an artist, ain't I? Ok, no kidding. I am not an artist, but I can make simple things like this out of my interest in art.

 
Here is the big TV, view from sectional. Sorry for the cross picture. It was intentional to avoid glare on TV from big open windows and doors. With so much light during the day its hard to take pictures in this room. That reminds me, did you notice the hideous window valances? No offense, but the previous owners (very sweet couple) had a theme for the house. Palm trees. More on that here.

I am sure you noticed my theme. Yes, I am going Green. more like the color Green. I gave each room an accent color while we first started decorating this home. We only had few things at that time so a single accent color in the room looked pretty. But now, as we started adding more stuff to each room, trying to match with the color theme, it is becoming too much of same color. So I am trying to mix up some like colors. That tiny blue vase in the built-in shelf is my attempt to mixing up blues and greens in this room.

So there you have it. Our family room. Where all the action happens. I'll be back soon with more readable matter about the baby clutter in this room.

Owlie Owlie...

Owls are everywhere these days. Its like the theme of the of the year. One of them made its way into our house too. I was window shopping at Z Gallerie during Thanksgiving weekend and spotted this Ceramic Owl coin bank. It was $12.95 and everything in store was 20% off that weekend.

I have been wanting to buy a piggy bank for my baby ever since I started planning her nursery even before she was born. But this Owlie changed my mind instantly. It looks more modern than babyish unlike the piggy. So at $11.16 (with tax), it flew home with me and is resting on our baby's dresser.

Did you know there is an Easy button?

I love finding deals on craigslist. I know lot of you do as well. Its my first go to place when I am looking for furniture. I feel there is not much inventory in our area compared to what people find elsewhere on craigslist, but that's a different story. I did find a portable crib, a changing station and a glider that I am yet to reupholster. But if you are like me, spoiled by Google images search, you might have thought countless times if there is a way to browse craigslist images only, instead of clicking on each post. Well, someone heard our wishes and made it possible.  CRAIGSEASY!!!

Apparently, its been around for more than a year. I found it late. No surprise, I didn't know about Pinterest until recently. Here is the interesting story of how this "Easy" button was born. Best part, it works with most classified sites. Happy deal searching!

Corky Vase

My Dad loves WINE and my husband loves to collect the corks. So everytime my dad visits (usually for couple of months) we stock up lot of vino at home. That leaves a lot of corks. I didn't know what to do with them until recently I have been in blog world. While I take time to make something with them, I decided to display them in a vase. I had some short square ikea glass vases so I arranged the corks in them. I decided to place it on the corner wine rack that my husband calls his mini bar (what better place to display corks than wine rack, right?), Since I accent our Living room with orange, added a trim at the bottom of the vase with an orange scrap paper.

Now, all I need to do is find an Orange rug, and some throw pillows, and couple of side tables and.... its a looooooong list. I'll get there, eventually.